132 EXAMINATION oj jn imtORICAL IirPOTBESIS 



In the Trionfo clella Mo/te, Part 2. the poet feigns that 

 Laura, on the night after her death, appeared to him in a vifion; 

 and, in the courfe of a long converfation, in which fhe acknow- 

 ledges, that fhe had ever felt for him a mutual paflion, and en- 

 deavours to fatisfy him, that every Angularity of her condufi:, 

 however harllily he might at the time have judged it, was 

 prompted by the fincerity of her affedlion for him ; flae fays iii 

 one pailage, 



In tutte Valtre cafe ajfai beata. 

 In una fola a mejlejfa difpiacqui j 

 Cbe '« troppo umil terren mi trova'i nata : 



Duolnii ancor veramente cVio non nacqiir 

 Almen phi prejfo al tuo fiorito nido ; 

 Ma affhifu bel paefe ov'' io ti piacqui. 



" Fortunate enough I was in other refpedls : this only I 

 " regretted, that the place of my birth was too humble : at lead 

 " I had caufe to repine at this circumftance, that it was not 

 " nearer to the beautiful country of thy nativity. Yet that 

 " region was indeed fufficiently beautiful where I had tlie hap- 

 " pinefs to pleafe thee." It was impoffible that Laura could 

 have termed the city of Avignon umil terreno, or that fhe could 

 have been afhamed of it as the place of her birth. At that time 

 Avignon was the Papal refidence, and one of the mofl fplendid 

 cities in the fouth of Europe ; a city, indeed, where luxury and 

 corruption of manners had attained to fuch a height, that Pe- 

 trarch himfelf chara(flerizes it by the epithet of the Gallic 

 Babylon *. 



In the fourth fonnet of the ifl Part of his Sonet ti e Canzoni^ 

 the poet has the following remarkable al lufions, which may per- 

 haps 



• EpisT. lib. fine tit. Ep. 16. 



